Lybrate, a mobile app which pretty much acts like “Secret’s Anonymity + Facebook’s Social network” for healthcare, has announced a funding round worth $10.2 Million, led by Tiger Global, with participation from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners, and serial investor (had to use that term), Ratan Tata.
Founded in 2013 by Saurabh Arora and a few other professionals from Facebook and Snapdeal, Lybrate is a mobile application, which lets patients seamlessly connect to doctors ‘anonymously’ from anywhere and anytime, and let them talk about former’s medical condition.
In addition, the Lybrate app also has Health Feed in the form of tips being shared by doctors concerning their specialty for any ideal user. Each health tip is categorized under one of the 400 topics and users can choose to receive health tips based on their interest. With this, the company is aiming to encourage the preventive aspect of medicine and ensure longevity.
Arora’s perplexing experience of witnessing people being diagnosed and treated directly by chemists in India, is what drove him and his team to design this app. He says,
We ignore our health and rush to take a call at delayed stages when the disease has progressed to serious levels. The tendency to consult chemists because of time constraint and inertia to visit a doctor is rampant and lead to risky behavior of self-medication. This is even more aggravated outside metros where accessibility of doctors is itself a challenge. Thus, by connecting doctors to the population and letting them communicate, we are trying to solve the fundamental problem and transform the way healthcare is being delivered in India
Talking about his firm’s investment into Lybrate, Lee Fixel, partner,Tiger Global said in a prepared statement,
Lybrate’s concept is ground breaking. We believe it has the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery in India and script the future of the healthcare industry with its model. The company is poised to gain ground rapidly as the penetration of Internet services and smartphones surge.
Before bringing any doctor on its platform, Lybrate runs a background check to verify medical licenses and credentials. The users can seek multiple opinions from doctors for free on the open platform, or start a one-on-one dialogue privately for a fee with doctors and share text, photo and voice. While interacting on an open platform, the physicians can also endorse answers of other doctors. In a nutshell, its pretty much one of the first social network of sorts for healthcare.
Sandeep Singhal of Nexus Venture Partner says,
Bringing medical interactions online improves the efficiency of doctor patient interactions. Personalized rich communication via the Lybrate app unburdens doctors and allows them to focus on critical patient care and allows consumers to have expert opinions from multiple doctors. Lybrate’s exponential growth has clearly demonstrated the market need and the power of their solution.
Worried whether the doc you’re talking to is authenticated ? Lybrate’s got your back. Before bringing any doctor on its platform, Lybrate runs a background check to verify medical licenses and credentials. The users can seek multiple opinions from doctors for free on the open platform, or start a one-on-one dialogue privately for a fee with doctors and share text, photo and voice. While interacting on an open platform, the physicians can also endorse answers of other doctors.
Since the launch of the Lybrate app in January this year, the company claims to have seen a massive growth with more than 80,000 doctors from various specialties from across India currently connected with its service. And with more than half a million downloads in the last five months and over 100,000 patients visiting the platform every day, Lybrate’s popularity has been growing exponentially.
